Feds taking more Ohio illegal immigrant arrestees

Sunday

Dec 26, 2010 at 12:01 AMDec 26, 2010 at 8:07 PM

The number of illegal immigrants arrested for crimes in central Ohio whose cases are being transferred to federal authorities for likely deportation is soaring, a trend that police and prosecutors say can hurt cases and lead to new crimes.

The number of illegal immigrants arrested for crimes in central Ohio whose cases are being transferred to federal authorities for likely deportation is soaring, a trend that police and prosecutors say can hurt cases and lead to new crimes.

The cases of 799 arrestees were transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from the Franklin County jail last year, up from 628 the year before and just 48 in 2008.

Because local and federal authorities aren’t communicating about the transfers, illegal immigrants accused of crimes are using the deportation efforts to avoid prosecution for serious crimes, the Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday.

In recent months in Franklin County, ICE deported one man arrested after being caught with a pound of heroin, another man who was a witness to a homicide and a third man accused of molesting a 6-year-old child. Authorities said the homicide case fell apart after the witness was deported.

ICE said it’s up to prosecutors to tell the jail when an illegal immigrant should not be flagged for possible deportation. Franklin County Jail officials counter that it’s federal immigration authorities who make that call.

The situation is a problem statewide, especially in urban areas where the high volume of cases makes communication between jailers, prosecutors and ICE officials even more difficult, said Bob Cornwell, executive director of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association.

The Columbus prosecutor’s office has a backlog of unresolved cases involving drunken driving, driving without a license and domestic violence for defendants who were deported after their arrest.

“We say, ’Look, we know they’re coming back. They have family members here,”’ said Lara Baker, the chief city prosecutor. “We don’t want them to have a free pass.”

Some illegal immigrants accused of crimes welcome deportation over prosecution. Jose Noe Mejia said he wanted to be deported in 2006 rather than faces charges of raping a 7-year-old girl. He had already been transferred to ICE custody when a judge issued a warrant and he was returned to Franklin County Jail. Mejia pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted rape and one count of gross sexual imposition and is serving seven years in prison.

“Jail is worse,” he said.

The miscommunication is undercutting the work police and prosecutors do, said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at the New York University School of Law.

“If the criminal justice system is made to make us safer and to penalize the people who committed crimes, what is this achieving?” Chishti said.

In addition, the possibility of being deported makes many in the immigrant community reluctant to step forward as a witness to a crime or as a crime victim, said Ruben Herrera, an immigrant-rights activist in Columbus.